Spinach and Eggs is an easy brunch or breakfast dish you can make in one pan. It is healthy and packed with great flavors. You need 6 ingredients only. It makes a delicious lunch or dinner as well that is ready in no time!
This spinach and eggs recipe is like the green version of our menemen recipe.
We are so obsessed with eggs, especially fried and sunny-side up. We can crack eggs on any vegetable we cook in a pan and this spinach recipe is one of our favorite quick Turkish dinner recipes.
OMG that yolk leaking on the cooked spinach is just irresistible! Nobody can resist that yolk! YUM!
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Why should you make this recipe?
- This is a quite satisfying spinach breakfast dish with the eggs (sunny side up) on the top.
- It is a tasty low-carb breakfast recipe.
- It is easy to serve it in individual portions; one or two eggs with the spinach around for each person.
- It is easy to customize. You can add more greens or vegetables in the pan.
About The Ingredients
This spinach and eggs recipe is one of the easiest breakfast ideas with 3 main ingredients:
Onion: A small onion would be enough for this recipe. Chop it finely.
Spinach: We use fresh spinach and chop it roughly. We use both the leaves and the stems. Don't worry, the stems taste as good as the leaves when cooked, so don't waste them. If you use fresh baby spinach leaves, you don't even need to chop them. To be even quicker, you can use canned spinach too. But make sure to drain the excessive water well.
Eggs: We use 4 large eggs for a serving of 4. Organic eggs have the best flavor, but you can use whatever you have on hand.
Besides these, we need olive oil, salt and pepper. We sometimes add in cumin too. If you like the flavor of cumin, use a little of it when adding salt and pepper.
Although it is not in the recipe, we love squeezing lemon on this dish when eating. If you have never tried spinach with lemon, give it a try! They go very well together.
Alternative Add-Ins
Garlic: You can add in minced garlic when the onions are translucent if you want.
Tomato paste: To give this egg and spinach dish even a richer flavor, you can add about 1 tablespoon of tomato paste or 1 or 2 chopped tomatoes right before adding the spinach.
More herbs and vegetables: Kale, leeks, green onions, parsley and basil are all great additions. They go well with spinach. Also, you can cook some mushrooms with onions. All these flavors are great when combined with eggs.
Spices: You can add cumin, paprika and red pepper flakes if you want your breakfast to be a bit spicy.
Cheese: A little parmesan, mozzarella, cheddar cheese or feta would be a nice addition on the top. Add whichever cheese you like right after you remove the skillet from heat.
Meat: If you want to add more protein to your spinach egg breakfast, you can cook some bacon with onions.
How to Make Spinach with Eggs
This is a super easy recipe!
Heat olive oil in a nonstick skillet, add in onions and cook until translucent, stirring occasionally.
Add in spinach leaves. If your skillet is not big enough, add half or quarter of the whole batch, cook for a few minutes, stirring often, until spinach shrinks. Then add the second batch and repeat until you add all the spinach. So adding spinach in a few batches is a good idea. Watch how in the video below.
Cook for about 10 minutes or until all the water that has been released from spinach leaves evaporates. Season with salt and black pepper.
Add the eggs: Make wells for eggs. You can add as many eggs as you like, depending on the size of the pan. Crack one egg into each well and cook until the whites set, about 3-4 minutes. You can gently poke the whites with a wooden spoon to help them cook well. Sprinkle salt and black pepper on each egg and serve.
Variations
With the same ingredients, you can make another variation of this recipe.
Scrambled eggs and spinach: If you are a fan of scrambled eggs, you can easily make it with spinach. To do this, cook the onions and spinach leaves as described in this recipe. Whisk eggs with a little heavy cream in a bowl and pour this mixture over the spinach and onion in the pan. Cook them stirring constantly so that the egg mixture scrambles with the spinach. Season with salt and pepper, top with some cheese and serve. You can serve this on toasted bread slices.
Expert Tips
- Before adding the eggs in the pan, make sure the water released by spinach evaporates. If it is still watery in the pan, cook for another 5 minutes. Then add the eggs.
- You can use canned spinach but drain it well.
- You can use frozen spinach as well, but thaw it first and drain well.
- If you want to make spinach and eggs scramble, whisk eggs with a little heavy cream and pour it over the spinach in the pan. Cook it, stirring constantly.
- If you have leftovers, keep them in the fridge in an airtight container for 1-2 days. Reheat them in a pan on low heat. You can even crack another egg on it if you want to increase the amount.
Serving Suggestions
You can serve it as a part of world famous Turkish breakfast spread. We love to dip pide bread into this dish, especially into that yolk.
Also, a few slices of avocado, tomato and cucumber on the side accompany the dish well.
Are eggs and spinach healthy?
Eggs are one of the healthiest foods packed with protein. Also, they keep you full for a long time, so they make perfect breakfast, lunch and dinner. When you combine eggs with spinach, you have one of the healthiest meals because just like eggs, spinach is a nutrient-dense vegetable. It is a great source of calcium and iron (source). What’s more, there is no ingredient here that increases the calorie of this recipe.
FAQs
Yes, you can. Spinach and eggs make a super healthy and satisfying dish together.
Yes, you can. Drain it well and follow the same steps in the recipe.
Yes, you can. Thaw it first, drain well and then use it in the same way described in the recipe.
More Turkish Egg Recipes
- Ground Beef and Eggs (Perfect meal on its own)
- Yumurta Kapama (Boiled Eggs with Spiced Butter Sauce)
- Turkish Egg Salad (Boiled eggs with fresh herbs and spices)
- Turkish Menemen (Scrambled eggs with tomatoes and peppers)
- Turkish Eggs (Poached eggs on garlicky yogurt)
- Yumurtalı Ekmek (Turkish style savory French Toast)
- Or check out our list of Turkish Egg Recipes for breakfast.
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📖 Recipe
Spinach and Eggs Breakfast Recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion diced
- 1 pound spinach washed well and roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 eggs
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add in onions and cook until transparent, about 5 minutes.
- Add in the spinach and season with salt and black pepper. Cook it stirring gently until the spinach leaves wilt and there is no water left.
- Make 4 wells in the spinach mixture when it is tender enough. Crack an egg into each well. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the egg whites are set.
- Sprinkle salt and black pepper on each egg.
- Serve hot.
Video
NOTES
- Before adding the eggs in the pan, make sure the water released by spinach evaporates. If it is still watery in the pan, cook for another 5 minutes. Then add the eggs.
- You can use canned spinach but drain it well.
- You can use frozen spinach as well, but thaw it first and drain well.
- If you want to make spinach and eggs scramble, whisk eggs with a little heavy cream and pour it over the spinach in the pan. Cook it, stirring constantly.
- If you have leftovers, keep them in the fridge in an airtight container for 1-2 days. Reheat them in a pan on low heat. You can even crack another egg on it if you want to increase the amount.
NUTRITION
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Suzan Ali says
Can you add sluce mushrooms?
Zerrin & Yusuf says
Hi Suzan,
Yes, you can. Sauté them with onions until soft. Then continue with the remaining steps in the recipe.
Sev Tsimos says
Hi Zerrin and Yusuf! Made your delicious recipe for lunch today and my hubby and I absolutely loved it! So tasty, quick and easy. I made your recipe exactly as written, no add ins and it was amazing. It’s going on our quick lunch time favourites list for sure! Thank you so much for sharing another of your delicious recipes and thanks for the wonderful and clear instructions and pictures, it really helps with getting it right! I’m not on Instagram or Facebook so cheering you on with 5 stars in your comments section. Cheers, Sev. 🙂
Zerrin & Yusuf says
Hi Sev,
Thank you for such a lovely comment! We are so happy to hear that your husband and you loved this recipe as much as we do. A great easy lunch option, right?
And we are glad you found the instructions and pictures helpful. Thank you for letting us know and for your 5-star rating!
Cheers 🙂
Sev Tsimos says
You are so welcome! 😊
Angela says
I did most of the add in suggestions- garlic, feta, cumin, paprika, avocado, and even added a bell pepper because I had a ton of them in the fridge. It definitely had amazing potential! The only thing I would do different next time is only use half a lemon when serving. A whole lemon was a bit overpowering for my taste, I wanted to taste the rest of the dish more than how much lemon I put on it. Thanks for the recipe! I will definitely revisit this again!
Zerrin & Yusuf says
Hi Angela,
Thank you for your comment and feedback. It is such a versatile recipe, right? You can make your own twist with the additions.
A whole lemon would definitely be too much for us as well. As noted in the post, we just squeeze a little on our plates when eating.
Cheers!
Lourdes says
Needed to get rid of some canned spinach but didn’t want to eat it plain! Although this recipe calls for fresh spinach, the canned one worked just as fine!! I made sure to drain all the excess water and grabbed a towel to remove more water too!! I added some spice to it with garlic and a little tomato paste for extra flavoring, it was amazing. This was a perfect breakfast since I love fried eggs so much! I will do this more often, thank you 💛💛💛
Zerrin & Yusuf says
Hi Lourdes,
Never thought of using canned spinach. We are so glad it worked and you liked the recipe. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Also we love the idea of adding tomato paste.
Cheers!
Angela says
Have ever used frozen spinach? That's all I Have on hand, how much would you recommend using?
Yusuf says
Hi Angela, never used frozen spinach, so I don't want to mislead you. But I guess you can use the same amount. Spinach shrinks anyway.
Felicity says
I made it with frozen spinach, put it in the pan first with oil to get rid of any excess water then added butter, onion and garlic. I added a good lunch of chilli flakes and salt a tablespoon of cream friache, stirred together then cracked eggs.
My husband loved the vege breaky!!!
Jenny says
I liked it. I added chili flakes, tomato chicken bullion powder instead of salt, fresh garlic, and sprinkled with feta. Was a really good recipe idea!
Kristina says
Thanks for this great recipe. It’s become a go to on the weekends. I usually add a few sun dried tomatoes to the onions and then top with some grated Parmesan at the end. We eat on top of toast. So easy and delicious!
Kelsey says
I am always looking for low or no carb recipes for my husband because I am a carb queen, this was perfect and delicious. Very quick and easy! I made a scrambled egg version for myself with some sharp cheddar. This will absolutely be on our normal breakfast menu from now on.
Dale says
Great, simple recipe. Used a bit of garlic infused oil for sauteing the onions. Added some egg beaters (egg whites) after adding nestling just two eggs into the wilted spinach to bind it all more like an omelette. Cooked eggs covered over medium-low heat. Then finished with some grated parmesan, a few sliced cheery tomatoes and avocado. Delicious!
Sangeetha Nair says
Simple yet Succumptous. Go to break fast dish.
Shaleena Campbell says
Tried this recipe and it was delicious and quick to make!
Annie says
Great recipe!! Tried it loved it. Will keep having it!
Zerrin says
Hi Anne! Glad you loved the recipe! Thanks for the feedback!
Aysegul Sanford says
Whoa!! This looks amazing. All you need is a big loaf of crusty bread and a glass of Turkish tea.
So GOOD.
Zerrin says
Thank you my friend! I can eat the whole thing with a loaf of bread! My favorite combination.
Natalie says
So glad to find this recipe. I often cook spinach with pork or soup but still wanna try more recipes.
This idea looks interesting and also beautiful!
Zerrin says
Thank you Natalie! I love spinach in soups too, but this one is my favorite.
Natalie says
Yes. I did try this and it was delicious! Although the spinach was overcooked a little bit, it's good anyway 😛
Zerrin says
Glad you liked it Natalie! Thanks for sharing your feelings here.
Codrut Turcanu says
hey Zerrin, I like this recommendation. It's fast and light. Thank you for the idea
and keep up the great work! 🙂
Aysegul says
Now, this is a gorgeous breakfast. Gimme all the eggs and spinach. Seriously, a breakfast does not get better than this.
Zerrin says
Thank you my friend! Super easy too!